Little Lovebirds

Lucy has her first boyfriend (besides Daddy) . . . . it's Henry - her cousin. She is truly in love . . . the two are thrilled each time they see one another and for now - I think he's the perfect choice for a boyfriend. Here are the two little lovebirds holding hands and sharing a sweet moment gazing across the river at Captain's Quarters in Louisville a few weeks ago.

Soccer Star . . . . sorta . . .

Although Ryan and I have made every effort to make Lucy LOVE soccer - it's just not happenin'. I mean we got the pink cleats, the pink ball, a cool Nike bag . . . Papa even got a practice soccer goal for our yard.
She is on the THUNDER, and has had a few practices and her first game. She cried through at least half of each. Mom and Dad became VERY frustrated at having the crybaby of the team. Although she still is a BABY, she's nowhere near shy when she sees a complete stranger in a resteraunt or at the grocery store. She doesn't even bother to introduce herself, she just starts right into her life story: "My daddy's in the army. My mommy has a big butt. You know what I got for my birthday? I got a music box. I go to Kids Team . . . . " But when it comes to going onto a field full of kids her age suddenly - she's shy. What's up with that? So even though she barely played she was still a darn cute little soccer player. She was totally content with not playing and just sitting on her ball on the sideline watching the others. We have practice again tonight, I'll let you know how it goes.

Costume Queen

Thanks to MeMe and her great dollar store bargains! She managed to find a witch and doctor costume for Lucy to enjoy some dress up fun with! If you don't know - Lucy is the doctor queen! She has cured many a boo-boo on all of her relatives so this doctor costume was right up her alley! And with her recent fascination with the Wizard of Oz, the witch costume was perfect for her too! Here are some pics of the Wicked Witch and Dr. Wilson (hmmm . . . hopefully a glimpse into the future). And if you're wondering, in the first pic Lucy is posing like Shania Twain in a poster of her we saw at Applebee's this week. Lord - please don't let that become a habit!

She even has the evil witch face down pat!

Birthday Celebration #2

This is the second celebration back in Liberty with my side of the family. Lucy LOVED her princess ice cream cake - and especially her big girl bike she got from Nana and Steve. But of course her favorite thing of all was spending time with her cousins Lizzy and Henry! We missed our TT though - but she was having too much fun getting redneck-ified with Reed at a weekend bike event. We can't wait to see the airbrush t-shirt TT!

Oh and as you can see from the picture above, Daddy got to be home for this party! His first time to be home in nearly 5 months!

Like Father, Like Daughter

Since Ryan left for the army in May, Lucy has done nothing but talk about how she is going to be in the 'girl army' one day. She insisted that her Daddy get her a pink army hat - 'because thats what your supposed to wear in the girl army'. It took some work - and a lot of internet searching but we finally found one, and just in time for her birthday. She was so proud of the hat she wore it all weekend. Here is a picture of my other soldier!

By the way - when we were on post and saw several of the female soldiers in their actual army uniforms, Lucy was very disspointed and said to me 'but Mommy - why aren't they wearing pink camo?' Note to army - change the attire for female soldiers to pink and I bet your female enlistment would go WAY up!!!

Birthday Celebration #1

Since Lucy's 3rd birthday was the day after Ryan's graduation we had a small party at the hotel while we were in Georgia . . . along with a trip to Chuck E. Cheez and Monkey Joe's. This was the first of several birthday celebrations since of course we had to celebrate with the rest of the family when we got back to Kentucky. Although this one was in the hotel room it was pretty great to her since her MeMe, Papa, Pop, Momma Jo, Mommy, Daddy, and Aunt Lindsay were all there with arm loads of presents!

Turning Blue

We traveled to Ft. Benning, Georgia once again a couple of weeks ago to attend Daddy's graduation from basic training and AIT. He is now officially a soldier in the US Army. We are so proud of him. And very proud to be a part of the "Turning Blue Ceremony" where family members can pin the shoulder cord onto their soldier to signify that they are now infantrymen. Lucy and I got to pin Ryan's on, and it was so neat! Here are some pictures of us at the ceremony and at the married soldier family breifing.

Oh and FYI - Ryan is now in Airborne Training at Ft. Benning. He is absolutely loving it - learning how to parachute from towers and airplanes (insert wife's nervousness here). He will be done there after next week and he has projected orders to be assigned to Ft. Campbell, KY with the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) in early October.